MYSA: Rancho Pancho Gets First Full Production
by Deborah Martin, San Antonio Express-News
The most memorable rehearsal for “Rancho Pancho,” which gets a two-night spin at Jump-Start this weekend, may have been the one with the mescal.
“It was some method acting,” joked Benny Briseño, who plays Pancho Rodriguez in the play.
The piece, written by San Antonio playwright and former Express-News book editor Gregg Barrios, digs into the tempestuous real-life relationship between Tennessee Williams and Rodriguez, a Texan. The two men set up housekeeping together for a brief time in a place they dubbed “Rancho Pancho.” Williams based Stanley Kowalski, the earthy husband in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” on Rodriguez.
After several readings over the past few years, the show is getting its first fully staged production this weekend courtesy of the brand-new Classic Theatre in collaboration with Jump-Start Performance Co.
Williams and his coterie led a fast life, including lots of drinking and smoking. Hence, the mescal-fueled “Rancho Pancho” rehearsal. The idea was to give the actors a sense of how the booze affects movement and speech patterns, director Diane Malone said.
Malone has been part of the play since its go-round at the now-defunct Church Bistro & Theatre at King William in 2006. (The first reading was at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.) The Church's staged reading, which Malone directed, was selected for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in 2007. And the current version, which Barrios revised considerably, has been selected for the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in Massachusetts later this month.
Those who don't manage to catch its two performances this weekend at Jump-Start needn't panic: Late-night performances have been scheduled to run during the Classic's staging of “The Glass Menagerie” at the SAY Sí black box theater Oct. 9-18.
Anna Gangai, who plays novelist Carson McCullers, came on board at the same time that Malone did and has watched the work evolve. The main difference now, she said, is that “it's a play; it's not a screenplay.”
To Barrios' credit, Malone said, he took the comments that were made following the readings to heart and streamlined the play considerably, eliminating some characters and tightening the focus.
“The focus is on Tenn and Pancho,” Malone said. “It is a love story and it is about their relationship.”
Rancho Pancho
Where: Jump-Start Theater, Blue Star Arts Complex, 1400 S. Alamo
When: 8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
Tickets: $7-$12; call (210) 227-5867
The most memorable rehearsal for “Rancho Pancho,” which gets a two-night spin at Jump-Start this weekend, may have been the one with the mescal.
“It was some method acting,” joked Benny Briseño, who plays Pancho Rodriguez in the play.
The piece, written by San Antonio playwright and former Express-News book editor Gregg Barrios, digs into the tempestuous real-life relationship between Tennessee Williams and Rodriguez, a Texan. The two men set up housekeeping together for a brief time in a place they dubbed “Rancho Pancho.” Williams based Stanley Kowalski, the earthy husband in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” on Rodriguez.
After several readings over the past few years, the show is getting its first fully staged production this weekend courtesy of the brand-new Classic Theatre in collaboration with Jump-Start Performance Co.
Williams and his coterie led a fast life, including lots of drinking and smoking. Hence, the mescal-fueled “Rancho Pancho” rehearsal. The idea was to give the actors a sense of how the booze affects movement and speech patterns, director Diane Malone said.
Malone has been part of the play since its go-round at the now-defunct Church Bistro & Theatre at King William in 2006. (The first reading was at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.) The Church's staged reading, which Malone directed, was selected for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in 2007. And the current version, which Barrios revised considerably, has been selected for the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in Massachusetts later this month.
Those who don't manage to catch its two performances this weekend at Jump-Start needn't panic: Late-night performances have been scheduled to run during the Classic's staging of “The Glass Menagerie” at the SAY Sí black box theater Oct. 9-18.
Anna Gangai, who plays novelist Carson McCullers, came on board at the same time that Malone did and has watched the work evolve. The main difference now, she said, is that “it's a play; it's not a screenplay.”
To Barrios' credit, Malone said, he took the comments that were made following the readings to heart and streamlined the play considerably, eliminating some characters and tightening the focus.
“The focus is on Tenn and Pancho,” Malone said. “It is a love story and it is about their relationship.”
Rancho Pancho
Where: Jump-Start Theater, Blue Star Arts Complex, 1400 S. Alamo
When: 8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
Tickets: $7-$12; call (210) 227-5867
posted by Dos Centavos at 10:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home